


Stitch This World Together (Piece by Piece)

by that_1_incident



Category: Cold Case
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Big Sisters, F/M, First Kiss, Guns, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Partners to Lovers, Sister-Sister Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-07-16 04:20:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7251838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/that_1_incident/pseuds/that_1_incident
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As soon as she’d woken up from being knocked out in Christina’s motel room, Lilly had called Scotty. Of course she’d called Scotty. (Contains spoilers for the "Cold Case" series finale, "Shattered," a.k.a. 7x22.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stitch This World Together (Piece by Piece)

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't get into "Cold Case" until the year after the series ended, then I wrote an alternate ending to the series finale that I [posted on LiveJournal](http://that-1-incident.livejournal.com/59572.html) back in 2011, and now I'm finally getting around to cross-posting that here. Basically what I'm saying is I missed the boat like three times on this one. Enjoy.

Lilly knew it was a bad idea, going after Christina like that, but if your drug-addicted sister were being held by a dope dealer somewhere in New Jersey... well, she hopes you’d do the same. 

As soon as she’d woken up from being knocked out in Christina’s motel room, she’d called Scotty. Of course she’d called Scotty; it wouldn’t have been anyone else. He came like he always did, didn’t ask questions until she was ready to give answers, and backed her up when she played bad cop at the pharmacy, even after she’d reamed him out about not telling her Christina was on Oxy. He should’ve told her, and she could see in his eyes that he knew that, but when it came down to it, he was as much a victim of Christina as she was. After all, the last time Hurricane Christina blew in and out of town, she’d left Scotty’s broken heart in her wake. 

\--

They have to rough up the guy they followed back from his drug run to the pharmacy, but they get what they want out of him in the end. It isn’t a lot to go on, just a name (Cliff) and a location (Jersey City), but it’s something and that’s all Lilly needs. They leave their informant chained to a clothes railing in a closet, throw a bag of chips at him and are halfway out of the house before they hear him say, “What, no dip?” 

Scotty’s eyes meet Lilly’s, and somewhere through the exhaustion, the exasperation, and the underlying gnawing fear, she manages to appreciate the wry grin on his face.

\--

When they find Christina, it’s terrible. She’s practically too weak to move, shivery as all hell from the withdrawals, and there’s a bruise on her face where her boyfriend hit her - if Lilly can even call him that. Scotty keeps watch at the bedroom door as Lilly cradles her sister in her arms, listening to her ramble about their childhood and their father and that day at the beach, then comes over when they need him to, scooping Christina into his arms. 

Lilly starts to follow them, and that’s when she hears it. She thinks she’s imagining things at first, but there it is again: a baby crying. Even as it all clicks together in her head - Christina saying she wants it to be different this time, talking about an “us” - Lilly doesn’t truly believe it until she walks into the next room and sees a baby wrapped up in a blanket, lying in a laundry basket. 

As she walks closer, the crying gets louder, and she’s just about to reach into the basket when she hears the front door of the house bang open. 

“Christina!” It’s a man’s voice, and he repeats her sister’s name, followed by some muffled curse words. When she hears “What the hell?” she knows he saw Scotty.

The man (Cliff, she presumes) has his gun drawn when she tackles him - _her_ gun, the one he stole back at the motel. When she strikes, he folds like a deck of cards onto the floor. 

She - well, yeah, she loses it. Regardless of everything that had happened between her and Christina, that was her _sister_ , her baby sister, and she’s so angry that her vision clouds with red. She has her gun out - her backup gun - and she’s about to shoot him straight between the eyes when Scotty’s voice brings her back to reality.

“You don’t want to do that, Lil,” he tells her firmly, voice strained from the exertion of holding Christina’s weight in his arms. Lilly doesn’t even know if her sister’s still conscious.

“C’mon,” he continues, and that’s enough to make her look at him. Christina _is_ awake, hand draped loosely around Scotty’s neck, and his eyes glint with emotion as he tells her, “Let’s go home.”

Lilly looks back at Cliff. The man’s head lolls as he traverses the line between consciousness and passing out, and she takes a shuddery breath and lowers the gun.

\--

Scotty nods like he knew she was going to do the right thing all along, but they’re both aware that it had been a close call. Lilly bends down to grab her police-issued weapon from the dealer’s limp grasp, then turns and heads for the baby as Scotty takes Christina to the car. 

She steps over Cliff’s prone body on the way out.

\--

Scotty drives back to Philly in silence, and Lilly sits in the back seat with her sister on one side and the baby on the other. 

There hasn’t been time to talk about anything; Christina’s passing in and out of alertness, and Lilly hasn’t spoken to her since they were back at the house. She doesn’t even know the baby’s name yet, although she supposes there’s plenty of time for that, as of course Christina and the child will be staying with her for a while. Or maybe permanently, she thinks, which scares her for a second until she really considers it. They had fun the last time - with the exception of the end of it, when Christina ran out on her, but she feels like things will be different this time, now that there’s a baby. Christina’s a lot of things, but Lilly knows she won’t be a deadbeat mom. It was written all over her face when Lilly climbed into the car holding her child, an expression Lilly had never seen on her before. After everything that’s happened, it would take a lot to get her to trust Christina again, but this time... this time she has faith.

\--

Christina falls immediately to sleep in Lilly’s bed when they get back to Philadelphia, murmuring something about rehab as Lilly brushes the sticky hair off her face. Scotty helps make a nest for the baby out of pillows and blankets that will have to suffice until they can buy a crib, and as Lilly stands over it, she almost wishes they’d brought the laundry basket with them. 

Lilly’s not really a baby kind of person, but there’s something about this one. Maybe it’s because they’re blood or that she sees such a strong resemblance to Christina, but she can barely look away. 

She glances up as Scotty ambles out of her bathroom, shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He looks exhausted but happy about the way things turned out, and she returns his smile. 

“We should probably do something about this, uh... situation,” he says in hushed tones, waving a hand in the general direction of the baby’s makeshift sleeping area, and Lilly laughs quietly. 

“Yeah, probably.” She tucks a few stray strands of hair behind her ear. “Jeez, how did I come out of this with a roommate and a kid?”

Scotty chuckles quietly. “I don’t know, Lil. Only you, huh?”

She grins. “You got that right.”

He shifts his weight from one leg to the other, which is Scotty code for _I’m about to tell you something and I feel uncomfortable about it_. She knows him so well, it’s almost pathetic. 

“Hey, if you ever need anything, you know? Don’t hesitate. I’m, uh.” He clears his throat. “I’m invested in this too.”

It would be so easy to tease him, but right now she’s just happy he’s around. 

“Well, we really need to figure this crib thing out, and the baby’s gonna need food and diapers and - wow, I guess I’m gonna have to turn the guest room into a nursery...”

“Hey.” Scotty touches her arm and she stops talking. “One step at a time, OK?”

She takes a deep breath, then lets it out slowly. “Yeah. Yeah, OK.”

Scotty guides her into his arms and she inhales the familiar scent of his aftershave, his stubble lightly scratching against her cheek. He hasn’t shaved since this thing with Christina began. 

“I know you, Lil, and I know you’re gonna do just fine. All of you,” he assures her, squeezing a little tighter, and, God, she’s so glad he’s here. 

She pulls out of his embrace enough to look up at him and say thank you, but before she can speak the words, a lump forms in her throat that’s too big for them to fit around. Scotty puts a hand on her cheek, reassuringly warm and lightly callused at the fingertips, and they stare into each other’s eyes for a long moment before she leans up to close the gap between their lips.


End file.
